Weddingbee Blog

Interestingly enough, one of the things that I did not give a flying flip about in the beginning of wedding planning was flowers. I had no desire for massive amounts of flowers—nothing over the top, no girly stuff, nothing of the sort. No pink was to come anywhere near the wedding. During this minimalist phase of early wedding planning, I loved the idea of having billy buttons and low potted plants. After a few months of wedding research and idea-sponging, I began to have second thoughts. Maybe I did want flowers. Maybe these weren’t such a bad idea. A few couldn’t hurt, right?

Then enter Amy Osaba and The Free Wedding. Ich bin game over gegangen. [Sidebar: "I went game over." This is what Mr. Scissors used to say as a kid when he lost a video game. He didn’t know what game over literally meant, but he knew it was all finished. OK, sidebar finished.] I have a serious, major, epic, colossal crush on her floral designs.

Just LOOK at these gorgeous flowers. Want, need, must have.

{ flowers by Amy Osaba for The Free Wedding }

The color, the variety, the styling, the EVERYTHING. It just sets my heart aflutter, and was one of the final deciding straws in choosing to have a colorful wedding. Screw my phobia of pink in our wedding, because this is some pink that I can deal with. This stuff is PERFECT.

Oh wait, maybe not. While I adore Amy’s work, we weren’t really sure how the logistics of booking a florist that was 70 miles away would work. However, I soon found out that Terry Dunn, a local landscape architect and florist whose work I have admired for years, was available and ASKED to be able to do the flowers for the wedding. We met, I went over my massive amount of inspiration shots, and thankfully he was totally on board with what we wanted flower-wise.

So, signed, sealed, and delivered—he’s ours. Also, he’ll be doing the landscaping for the house as well. I’m excited that the same person will be doing both the landscaping and the wedding-day flowers.

Now comes the task of taking all of these wonderful flowers and narrowing it down to what we actually want! With that being said, let me unleash a barrage of the rest of my (very pared down) flower loves.

{ flowers by Amy Osaba }

I love the wild and slightly unkempt nature of these bouquets and arrangements. It adds an extra layer of whimsy and removes the stuffiness that I felt flowers had before.

{ flowers by Amy Osaba }

I can just picture those flowers draped across the mantles in our house. Free-form, lush, and so unexpected. Terry was a big fan of those sticks, and I must agree.

{ flowers by Amy Osaba }

Besides Amy’s work, I also have a few other bits of inspiration and flower porn up my sleeve. This DIY bouquet I found on Design*Sponge gave me a new-found obsession with poppies.

{ flowers from design*sponge }

Giant, colorful, and just plain fun. Poppies mixed in with the dahlias and hydrangeas add such a… (wait for it…) pop.

A gorgeous wedding shot by Feather Love had some of the most beautiful flowers I’ve ever seen.

{ flowers shot by feather love photography }

Big, bright dahlias seemed to be the main focus, but I love the mixture of the potted (or more like jarred?) plants on the tables.

I found this bouquet by Studio Choo on little white book, and it sealed the deal for me as far as having poppies. Poppies must happen.

{ flowers by Studio Choo found on little white book }

The unopened poppies remind me of Audrey II, and I love the wild and unruly style it gives this bunch of flowers.

These next two flower arrangements are just two random ones that I adore. The first isn’t as free-form-multi-leveled as the rest, but I love the flowers in the mix. The second just kills me with the colors, scabiosa, peonies, and ranunculus.

{ flowers from the b-list blog }

{ flowers and container by Ashley of Dolci Odille }

Whew, that was a pretty long and wild flower porn ride. Based on the inspiration photos and what I’ve discussed with Terry, it looks like we’ll be having:

1. Peonies
2. Ranunculus (He assures me we’ll be able to get these in June. I hope he’s right!)
3. Garden Roses
4. Poppies
5. Dahlias
6. Hydrangeas
7. Ridiculous amounts of non-traditional greenery/filler (Think sticks, herbs, and things of that nature!)

I’m really excited to see what he ends up creating. Based on our style and his style, I know it will be something funky, colorful, whimsical, and unexpected. The girl who hated flowers will be having a wedding drenched in florals. Who woulda thunk it?

What flowers are you focusing on for your wedding? Any other flower-haters-turned-lovers out there? What kind of flowers/style changed your mind?

P.S. Who else is as 800% in love with all of these inspiration pics as I am?